By: M Square
15th Feb 2015
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"Affordable minimalism still up to the job 30 years later"
Had this amp from new and back in the day it was used with a pair of Yamaha NS10M speakers and a Rega Planar turntable. Tone-free amps were the big audiophile thing back then so there's no bass or treble controls (these days you'd get the tone controls with an optional bypass circuit). There's a phono input which is the only rear phono input that's gold-plated. Speaker spring grip/clip connector terminals on the rear preclude uber heavy speaker cables unless you use 2mm pin jack banana plug adapters.
Input selectors feel cheap and sometimes sound unnervingly clangy in their action but having used this amp for 30 years all is as the day it was bought with no faults so clearly a well made amp. Lights are an absolute minimum so just a small red power button and a grid of red lights above each input button: Tape monitor, video aux, tuner, CD & phono. Used this amp with everything from cassette, reel to reel, Laserdisc, vinyl, CD, PCM adapter and iPod and it's always sounded neutral with a good sound stage and a very natural sound. As long as your speakers don't need to be driven this is a rewarding and well designed amp.
27 people liked this review.
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